Saturday, May 24, 2008

Authorities are looking for a 9-year-old boy whose father was deported from Seattle to Mexico by federal immigration agents in April after being arrested on suspicion of drunken driving.

In early May, the boy's mother went to the King County Sheriff's Office to report her son, Jonathon Venegas-Vielle, missing. She doesn't have custody of the boy.

Sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart says the boy is a U.S. citizen. He says investigators don't believe the boy traveled to Mexico to be with his father.

Urquart says no one seems to have seen the boy since his father appeared in Seattle Municipal Court in January and was immediately booked into jail.

Urquhart says at the time of the father's Jan. 24 arrest, the boy and his father were homeless, living out of a car or staying with friends and acquaintances.

A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement says her agency has no record of the boy. Lorie Dankers says the father appeared before an immigration judge on April 26 and was deported after waiving his right to appeal.

Urquhart says deputies will forward the case to Child Protective Services if they locate the boy.